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While Bill Fontana (* 1947, Ohio, USA) is projecting the sounds of sustainable energy production on the inside of Kunsthaus Graz, his ‘Sonic Projections’ will also be broadcasting sounds of nature and culture from all over the world once every hour into urban space in Graz. This project is an adapted re-enactment of the sound installation he developed for the city as part of the 1988 steirischer herbst festival, which explored the National Socialist seizure of power. Although at the time it was quickly shut down by resistance to the political festival as a whole, Fontana’s work continues to resonate with a melancholic longing in the memory of many local residents.
For the Graz Year of Culture 2020, Fontana has reshaped the Sonic Projections from Schlossberg, using historical and more recent environmental sounds, such as a foghorn or an Australian lyrebird, to create a musical sound dialogue between the Graz clocktower and Kunsthaus. These unfamiliar sounds also call for attentive listening and a brief pause. Recorded in eight places around the city, the sounds blend with everyday noises in public space and are transmitted as a continuous sound pattern on the façade of Kunsthaus.
Sonic Projections is a sound project for the urban space of Graz. Harmonious sounds of nature and culture gathered from all over the world are broadcast from two central locations – the roof of Kunsthaus and the clocktower on the Schlossberg – into the urban environment. The dialogue includes sounds such as the song of an American nightingale, an Australian lyrebird, or the blast of a foghorn from San Francisco Bay, regularly inviting us to enjoy a brief, private retracing of the ‘overlooked’.
Bill Fontana. Sonic Projections
Image Credits
Duration
01.07. - 04.10.2020
Location
Kunsthaus Graz
Curators
Katrin Bucher Trantow
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About the
Project
Sonic Projections is a sound project for the urban space of Graz.
In the context of Graz Year of Culture 2020
Further information
Info: Following the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, we were unable to open Bill Fontana’s solo exhibition to the public on March 12th as planned. As a result, the Kunsthaus team decided to transmit the Sonic Projections in a reduced form across the quieter city. From 12.03.-31.05.2020 we will be transmitting selected sounds from Sonic Projections from the roof of the Kunsthaus.
When the exhibition opens its doors on July 1st and activities begin returning to normal in the city, the project will take the form originally planned for 2020, transmitting alternating sounds in a dialogue between the clock tower and the Kunsthaus.
Sonic Projections as a sound dialogue between the clock tower, the Kunsthaus and the city, from 01.07.-04.10.2020.
About Sonic Projections - a dialogue for urban space
The following sounds can be heard once an hour throughout the day, like church bells (from Monday to Saturday, beteuern 8.20am and 11.20am, 14.20pm and 6.20pm) for a few brief moments in urban space: various foghorns from San Francisco Bay (1978, 1984, 2014), the song of the Austrian lyrebird (1978), the call of the cuckoo (Danube wetlands, Austria, 1990), the song of the nightingale (Finland, 1990) and the bellbird (Australia 1976), the melodic sounds of a passing historic steam locomotive (from California) and an American diesel locomotive (1982), various sounds made by buoys (New York, 1991/ Sydney 1978) and water noises of the river Mur.
Live recordings in the urban soundscape become the sound map of the city
Parallel to his sound installation in 1988, Bill Fontana recorded urban sounds in seven locations, and these were woven into the sound projections. All of the recordings were transmitted live into the Landhaushof – and occasionally broadcast live on radio.
For the re-enactment, eight new recording locations were chosen - Schönaugasse, Europaplatz, railway station platforms, the Volksgarten, Mariahilferplatz, the Murinsel, the Stadtpark, and the Augartensteg footbridge – with a view to assembling an acoustic picture of the city at Kunsthaus Graz. Collected from across the world, these natural sounds are embedded into the familiar rhythmic patterns of our daily routine, revealing to us on the threshold of perception the link between local existence and international coexistence.
On Bill Fontanas web page you can dive into the ambisonic recording of the exhibition and its different soundscapes. Tip: Please use headphones.
Thanks to Mihajlo Mecanovic, Hotel Daniel, Pfarrer Paul G. Nitsche, Evangelische Pfarrgemeinde Graz-Kreuzkirche and Heidrun Primas, FORUM STADTPARK.
If you have questions about the project, please contact alexandra.trost@museum-joanneum.at.
